Dan Le Batard Producer Spends Hours Obsessing Over OutKick Article In Thrilling Nobody Vs. Nobody Battle

Earlier this week, Dan Le Batard Show producer Mike Ryan went on a rant about UFC champion Sean Strickland. He demanded that ESPN do something about Strickland, who appears on their PPV service on Saturday night. OutKick covered Ryan's comments.

Well, Ryan read the article and apparently the commonly-triggered producer ... wait for it ... got triggered.

He didn't like someone calling him out for demanding the silencing of speech he doesn't agree with. So, he came after me on X. And, he spent hours doing it.

I decided to break down the social media battle, mostly because it kept me entertained on a Friday night.

First, Ryan added a line from the story to his X bio. For this I actually give him credit. It made me laugh.

Dan Le Batard producer Mike Ryan added an OutKick quote to his X bio (Screenshot: X.com)

Let me address this quote, as several Le Batard fans -- who also had nothing else to do on a Friday night -- came after me, as well. Ryan pointed it out, too.

What I wrote was that he's a "relative nobody" and I did so in the context of him demanding that ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro take action against Sean Strickland.

The meaning of this, as people with basic reading comprehension already understand, was to note that someone of Ryan's stature in this business doesn't get to demand that presidents of media companies do anything.

That's reserved for people who, you know, have some impact in the space. Need proof that what I wrote was correct?

Google, "Mike Ryan Sean Strickland." Articles pop up about what he said. Not one of the headlines actually includes his name. Why? Because most people don't know who he is. That was the point.

He claims that I am also a nobody because he doesn't remember me working at ESPN. That's fair. However, the difference is that I don't demand that major network heads do anything.

I am aware of my current place in the sports media landscape and don't try to pretend I am any bigger than I am. Self-awareness is important, and I was simply noting that Ryan lacks it.

Dan Le Batard producer Mike Ryan engages OutKick writer on X over Sean Strickland article

Someone on X by the handle "lebatardshowfan" tried to play "gotcha" with me by drudging up a tweet I posted almost eight years ago. In his mind, this proved I am a closet fan of Dan Le Batard and, thus, a hypocrite.

Firstly, I'm not sure how this proves I was a fan of the show. I worked at ESPN and the show was on our speakers in the hallway and in the control room. Of course I listened to it. And, I'm not sure how this tweet conveys that I am a fan.

I responded in kind.

This is where Ryan joins the fray with me directly. His first post about the OutKick article came around 6:30 p.m. Four hours later, he decided he just couldn't let this go. It's probably one of the first times a legitimate media organization wrote about him, so I don't fully blame him.

Not only did he reply to my nearly-eight-year-old tweet, but he quoted it, also.

I responded to this.

He responded to this and wrote something about me being a "fellow nobody" except he typed "follow nobody," so I corrected him. He, of course, later deleted that post.

But perhaps he also realized that this argument made no sense. He criticized me for spending my time writing about a nobody while also being a nobody myself. To use his own logic against him, if I'm such a nobody, why did he spend HOURS posting about me?

OK, moving on! This is fun, isn't it?

Next came the crux of his attack on me: that I am secretly a fan of the Dan Le Batard Show but OutKick forced me to pretend I am not.

Not only that, but that I perhaps obsessively tweeted about the show in the past and then went back and deleted all those tweets so as to not be exposed.

Well, that's definitely not true. I would have never wasted time going back through 12 years of a social media account to find old posts. I might be a nobody, too, but I have more going on in my life than to spend time doing that.

Then, a former PA at ESPN who I vaguely remember working with a handful of times jumped in to save the day for Mike Ryan. He says I told him I was a fan of the show.

Let me address this: there was a time that I enjoyed parts of the Dan Le Batard Show. I don't deny that and never have. In fact, there are many people who used to enjoy the show, but don't anymore. I also used to enjoy Saturday Night Live and don't any more.

Actually, what I liked about the previous iteration of the show is that it never took itself too seriously. They made self-deprecating jokes. But, at a certain point, that all changed.

As you'll see in a minute, every tweet I posted came prior to the fall of 2016.

See, that's when the American people elected Donald Trump President of the United States of America. At that point, Dan Le Batard -- and those like him -- completely lost their minds. They fell into a deep state of Trump Derangement Syndrome and haven't recovered.

Did I enjoy some of what the Le Batard Show did before their brains broke? Absolutely. Do I still enjoy Stugotz, who recently called out Le Batard himself for being a "sell out"? Absolutely.

Mike Ryan goes through entire Twitter/X history of an OutKick writer on Friday night

So Ryan, after accusing me of scrubbing my account of "fan tweets," found some old tweets of mine from pre-2017. He spent his precious time going through my entire Twitter/X account to find two tweets that referenced the show. Here they are:

The first post references my enjoyment of Stugotz. I literally wrote that in the article about Ryan, so I'm not sure what that proves.

The second is a response to a social media stunt the show pulled back in 2015. A social media manager for the Houston Rockets tweeted a horse emoji and a gun emoji when the team was on the verge of eliminating the Dallas Mavericks from the playoffs.

The Rockets fired him for this tweet. The Dan Le Batard Show hired him to tweet for them for an entire weekend. It was a fun stunt and goes to show just how far the show has fallen since then.

They had a sense of humor then and gave a guy a second chance who was fired for making a joke. Now, they want people silenced and cancelled for making jokes. Thus, I changed my opinion on them.

That seems fair on my part, doesn't it? Actually, I thank Ryan for digging up this tweet. It serves as a perfect reminder for what they used to be about before Donald Trump effectively ruined them just by existing.

Now, Ryan spends his Friday nights "defending the marginalized" by not actually doing anything but by sending out social media posts. He attacks writers who call out his nonsense.

I'm really sorry, Mike, that I hurt your feelings.